Method for inputting data into a system

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for inputting data into a system. In order to make it easier for users to input data, the invention provides that, in response to an input by a user, one or more terms which are as appropriate as possible for this input are determined as identified terms, that a confidence value is defined for each of these identified terms, and that the terms associated with an input are dealt with further, taking account of their confidence values.

The invention relates to a method for inputting data into a system.

The increasing further development of information and communicationstechnology has resulted in ever more information and communicationssystems whose operation and use mean that it is necessary to input notonly individual terms or commands, but also complete data records.Systems requiring such complex data inputs include, for example,navigation systems, which guide the user from his original location to adestination point, traffic information systems, e-mail services or thelike.

Since the input means available for inputting data into a system, forexample into a navigation system installed in a vehicle, are generallylimited to simple keypads with a small number of keys, for example witha block of twelve keys, turn-and-push controls, so-called soft keys,that is to say keys whose function is assigned to them depending onprogram execution, or the like, it is difficult and time-consuming toinput complete data records.

For example, with a known navigation system, the postal address of thedestination has to be input, together with the house number, road nameand town or area name. A push-and-turn control is provided for thispurpose, using which individual letters can be selected and input from alist of displayed letters. In order to make it easier for the user tomake an input in this case, once one letter has been input, the onlyletters which are still displayed are those which sensibly complementthe previous letter sequence in terms of a town or road name to beselected and stored in the navigation system database. In this case, assoon as the input letter sequence corresponds to only one possible townor road name, the rest of the letters are added automatically, so thatthe user can continue to input the next term, until the data required todefine the destination point have been input.

Such an input dialogue between a navigation system and a user is,however, rather tedious.

Input dialogues based on voice input have also already been proposed inorder to avoid the limitations of the input dialogue using the limited,tactile input means.

In such a dialogue, the navigation system is first of all activated by avoice command “navigation system”. The system responds with an audibleor visual report “system ready”, and then uses the input request “pleasespell out the town name” to request the user to spell out the name ofthe desired town. The user then inputs the town name, for example“E-R-D-I-N-G” as a letter string. The system then reports back theidentified town name “Erding” as a word or as a letter string, and asksthe user to confirm that the input is correct. If the system returns theinput incorrectly, and the user uses the voice command “no” to rejectthe identified input, the input dialogue reverts to inputting the townname, and requests the user to spell out the town name once again.

If the town name has been identified correctly, the same process isrepeated to input the road name, and then to input the house number.

Although such a voice input process is not subject to the limitations ofinput means such as keypads or turn-and-push controls, the strictdialogue structure means that there is a lack of simple correctionfacilities. Furthermore, the voice reports from the system, which alwaysremain the same, are annoying and time-consuming for a practised user.

Against this background, the invention is based on the object ofproviding a method for inputting data into a system, which simplifiesthe inputting process, in particular voice inputs for data into thesystem, and thus simplifies and speeds up use of the system.

This object is achieved by the method according to claim 1.

Thus, according to the invention, in response to an input by a user, thesystem determines one or more terms, which are as appropriate aspossible for this input, as identified terms, defines a confidence valuefor each of these identified terms, and deals with or processes theterms associated with an input further, taking account of theirconfidence values. The confidence value is in this case advantageously avalue from an interval between a number, preferably 1, corresponding toreliable identification, and that for an input which cannot beidentified, corresponding to 0, including these values.

The confidence values in this case describe the extent to which theidentified term matches the input. The process of establishing theconfidence value is generally known from the prior art and can be read,for example, in the book “Fundamentals of Speech Recognition”, L.Rabiner, B-H Juang, 1993, Prentice Hall PTR, 1993, Engelwood Cliffs,Chapter 4.

Once a term has been input by voice, either as a word or as a characterstring, not only an individual term is thus present, but a series ofterms associated with the input are defined, which can then be dealtwith further as a function of the confidence values, that is to say theycan be displayed or announced, for example.

In a first refinement of the invention, the identified terms areannounced and/or displayed to a user as a system response, starting withthe term identified as being the most reliable, on the basis of theirconfidence values. This allows the user to select the correct term fromthe identified terms.

Thus, in response to his input, the user does not just receive a singleidentified term, but is offered the option, if the first-mentioned termis incorrect, to look for the correct term from the other identifiedterms. Thus, the input need be repeated only if none of the identifiedterms matches the user's intended input.

If the input into a system is used for selection of a data record,comprising a number of terms or data items, from a number of datarecords stored in the system, then one advantageous development of theinvention provides that, for each identified term, those data recordswhich are appropriate for the identified terms are looked for in a listof stored data records.

When terms or data are being input using a form-based dialoguestructure, it is in this case particularly advantageous for the input tobe completed by a data record appropriate for the identified term. Thus,for example, when inputting the destination point into a navigationsystem, if an address were to be input which is already stored in apersonal address book, then a name associated with this address is, forexample, input first of all, and the appropriate data record, that is tosay the address, corresponding to the identified name, is then lookedfor, and the form is completed using the details from the data record.

In this case, the dialogue form may be completed automatically as soonas only one data record matches the input terms following the process ofinputting one or more terms, for example “Müller”, “Hamburg”. However,according to the invention, it is preferable for the data input to becompleted in response to a request signal. Another expedient refinementof the invention provides that the number of data records found can bereduced by inputting one or more further terms.

A particularly advantageous refinement of the invention is distinguishedin that each stored data record is assigned a probability value, whichdescribes the probability of the data record being used again. Thisprobability value for a data record corresponds to the ratio of thenumber of times this data record has been used to the total number oftimes all the data records have been used.

In the situation where the system identifies a number of terms inresponse to an input, with each of which one or more data records areassociated, the invention furthermore provides that anannouncement/display sequence of the data records is defined as afunction of their probability values and the confidence values of theassociated terms.

Thus, for example, if a number of stored data records match anidentified term, then that data record whose probability value is thehighest is displayed first of all. This allows a user of a navigationsystem who has stored a number of addresses under the name “Müller” toselect the address of that Mr/Mrs Müller who he visits most frequently,simply by inputting the term “Müller” when inputting into the navigationsystem the destination point desired at that time. If the user wishes toenter as the destination point another address stored as a data recordunder the term “Müller” then he then either just has to scroll throughthe determined data records, or he can enter a further term, whichspecifies the data record for the desired address more accurately, inadvance.

The identified terms or the data records found are in this caseexpediently announced and/or displayed individually and successively, oras a selection list for confirmation or selection.

When using voice input, it is particularly advantageous for theconfidence value of voice recognition to be established in the normalmanner.

In order to improve the voice recognition confidence when using voiceinput, another development of the invention provides that the voiceinput by a user is first of all subjected to speaker identification, andthat the subsequent voice recognition process is carried out takingaccount of the result of the speaker identification.

Another refinement of the invention provides that the input is made viaan alphanumeric input device, with the terms entered in this way firstof all being assigned the confidence value for reliable identification.

However, since different inputs or typing errors can occur frequently,for example with rotary digit or letter selectors or the like, withoutthe user making the input actually identifying them when inputtingalphanumeric terms via a keypad or some other tactile input means, it isparticularly expedient for an incorrectly alphanumerically input term,which has already frequently been input incorrectly in a manner specificto a particular user, is assigned a lower confidence value as a functionof input-specific error statistics. Furthermore, it is expedient if anincorrectly alphanumerically input term which has already frequentlybeen input incorrectly in a manner specific to a particular user, isautomatically corrected in this manner, with the corrected term beingassigned a confidence value which is lower than the confidence value forreliable identification.

Another refinement of the invention provides for the input to be animage input.

The invention will be explained in more detail in the following textusing the drawing by way of example, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a user interface for carryingout the method according to the invention, with various connectedapplications.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic, simplified flowchart of a first refinement ofthe method according to the invention, and

FIG. 3 shows a schematic, simplified flowchart of a second exemplaryembodiment of the method according to the invention.

As is shown schematically in FIG. 1, a processing circuit 10 of a userinterface has connected to it, as input means, a video camera 11 havinga downstream image recognition device 12, a keypad 13 which may be, forexample, a block of twelve keys, a turn-and-push control 14 and amicrophone 15 with associated voice recognition 16. In this case, inorder to improve the voice recognition confidence, a speakeridentification device 17 is in this case advantageously connectedbetween the microphone 15 and the voice recognition 16 and assigns aspeaker signal to the voice signal supplied from the microphone 15,using which the voice signal can be processed in the voice recognitiondevice 16, taking account of the specific speaker characteristics.

A loudspeaker 18 is connected to the processing circuit 10 as outputmeans, and a monitor 19 is connected as visual display means via adriver 20 for audible signals or a driver 21 for visual signals.

Furthermore, the processing circuit 10 is connected to applications 22,23 which may be, for example, a navigation system, a road informationsystem, an e-mail service, a fax service, a mobile radio service or thelike. Each application 22, 23 may in this case be provided with its owndatabase for data records to be used in the application. The variousdatabases may in this case be stored either in an application-specificmemory, or, as in the case of the illustrated user interface, in anappropriate data memory 24. It is particularly expedient to provide adatabase whose data records can be used by a number of applications. Forexample, apart from someone's name and telephone number, the datarecords in such a database may also have his postal address, his housenumber, road, town or area, and the corresponding GPS data. Such a datarecord could also include statistical data, for example indicating howfrequently the corresponding person has been called, or how frequentlythis data record has been used for route planning to the place wherethat person lives.

In addition, it is also possible for application-specific statisticaldata to be stored in a memory area 25 for application-statistical datacontaining, for example, the absolute and relative usage frequency foreach data record. Furthermore, a memory area 26 can be provided in whichuser-specific input errors and their frequency are stored.

Here, for example, it is possible to store specific typing errors, forexample number inversions and their frequency, that is to say to storethe fact that “89” is frequently input instead of “98” when making aninput via the keypad 13 or the turn-and-push control 14. If statisticalanalysis in this case identifies that an input “89” is changed to “98”with a relative probability of, for example, 65%, then such a correctioncan be made automatically, with a confidence value of 0.65 at the sametime being assigned to the term “98” which has been changed in this way.On the other hand, if the change frequency value is less than 50%, forexample 45%, this value can be left unchanged and assigned a confidencevalue of, for example, 0.55.

A first exemplary embodiment of the method according to the inventionfor inputting data into a system will be explained in more detail in thefollowing text using FIG. 2 by way of example. In this case, anavigation system will be described as a system. However, the methodaccording to the invention can also be used successfully with othersystems in which individual terms or a number of terms have to be inputin order to select data records stored in a database or to produce datarecords to be stored in the database.

If, for example, a user who has access to a route plan and destinationrouting system or a navigation system wishes to access this navigationsystem, then, after switching the system on, he inputs the command“navigation system” (step S11). Depending on the respective actualequipment in a user interface, this input may be made in various ways.Only voice input will be described in the following text here. However,the fundamental structure of the method is not dependent on the natureof the input.

As soon as the navigation system is ready after inputting the command instep S11, it issues the input request “input destination” to the user,in step S12, as confirmation. The output in this case may either beannounced or else displayed. An announcement and display may in thiscase also be produced simultaneously. The following text refers only toan announcement, although this does not preclude the alternative orsupplementary display of an output.

Once the user has been requested to input the destination for the routeplan that he would like to have produced, he makes the voice input instep S13. In this case, the name of the destination, for example“Erding” can be input as the letter sequence “E-R-D-I-N-G” or as thespoken word “ERDING”. The acoustic signal received by the microphone 15during the voice input in step S13 is first of all supplied as a voicesignal to a speaker identification device 17, and then to voicerecognition 16. The voice recognition in this case takes account of theresult of the speaker identification to determine, in a known manner,the terms identified on the basis of the input. For example, from theinput “ERDING”, the voice recognition identifies the terms “Erding” witha confidence value of, for example, 0.8, “Erting” with a confidencevalue of 0.7, and “Ärding” with a confidence value of 0.6. In step S14,the identified terms are then sorted on the basis of their confidencevalues. Then, in step S15, the terms are announced in the sequence oftheir confidence values. The term identified to have the highestconfidence value, that is to say “Erding” with a value of 0.8 here, isin this case the first to be announced or displayed. In step S16, thesystem uses, for example, the input request “is ‘Erding’ correct” torequest confirmation or rejection of the identified term.

If the term is correct and has been confirmed by an appropriate voiceinput by the user, a dialogue is carried out in step S17 to determinewhether the input is complete, that is to say whether all the terms tobe input have been input, or whether there are any further terms to beinput. In the latter case, the user is requested by the input request“next term” in step S18 to continue with the voice input (step S13).

However, if the input is complete, then the complete input is sent tothe navigation system, and the input dialogue is terminated.

If the term announced in step S15 is not the term desired by the user,then, following the confirmation request in step 16, he rejects thisterm by “no”, after which a check is carried out in step S19 todetermine whether any further terms have been identified. If this is thecase, then the next term is announced in step S15.

This procedure is repeated until either an identified term has beenconfirmed as being appropriate by the user, or all the terms have beenrejected. Instead of successive announcements of the identified terms,if a display is used, all the terms can also be displayed in the form ofa selection list. The user can then scroll through the list and selectthe desired term directly, or can reject the entire list as beingincorrect.

If, once all the terms have been announced, all have been rejected asbeing incorrect, then the method jumps after step S19 to step S20, inwhich the note “term not identified” was output. The input request“repeat input” is then announced in order to inform the user that thesystem has returned once again for voice input in step S13.

In a manner which will not be described in any more detail, the user hasthe option after each input request to input a terminate command eitheras a voice command or via an appropriate terminate key. Pushing theturn-and-push control 14 may in this case be interpreted, for example,as a terminate command.

Not only destination inputs for a navigation system may advantageouslybe carried out in the described manner, but also the selection ofspecific data records from stored data records.

The simplest example of this is a personal telephone directory, which isstored electronically. However complex data records may also be selectedin order, for example, to simplify the process of inputting destinationsin a navigation system.

Such a method according to the invention, in which one data record canbe selected from a large number of stored data records, in order to fillout a dialogue form of an application, that is to say for example theinput requests “house number”, “road” and “town or area” when inputtinga destination into a navigation system, will be explained in thefollowing text with reference to FIG. 3. After activation of theapplication (see steps S11 and S12 in FIG. 2), the voice input and voicerecognition are carried out in step S13′. The terms identified on thebasis of the input are then provided, together with their confidencevalues, in step S31 so that, in step S32, the data records which matchthe identified terms can be determined from the database, in step S32.Then, in step S33, an overall probability is calculated from theconfidence value of the identified term and the probability value of thematching data record.

Thus, once a user has used predetermined voice commands, which have beenidentified without any problems by the voice recognition, to enter thedestination under the name “Müller”, in order to select for thedestination input the data record associated with Mr/Mrs Müller, thevoice recognition identifies the term “Möller” with a confidence valueof 0.9 and, at the same time, the term “Müller” with a confidence valueof 0.8, and the term “Mahler” with a confidence value of 0.5. Thus, instep S31, these identified terms are provided together with theirconfidence values for the process of determining the data records thatmatch this, in step S32. In this case, for example, it is first of allfound that there is no Mahler in the data records. However, data recordsdo exist for the names “Müller” and “Möller”, and it is known from theapplication-specific statistical data that both data records have beenused for route planning in the past and that, in the last month, forexample, a route to Mr/Mrs Möller has been calculated in 10% of all theroute plans, and a route Mr/Mrs Müller has been calculated in 20% of allthe route plans.

These frequency values are associated with the data records so that theoverall probability can be calculated in step S33. The confidence valueof the identified term is multiplied by the relative usage frequency ofthe respective data record for the overall probability, which indicateswhich of the determined data records shall be requested, and with whatprobability. In the illustrated example, the overall probability of thedata record associated with Mr/Mrs Möller is 0.09, since the confidencevalue 0.9 is multiplied by a usage frequency value of 0.1 (10%). In acorresponding manner, the confidence value 0.8 and the usage frequencyvalue 0.2 (20%) are used to calculate an overall probability of 0.16 forthe data record associated with Mr/Mrs Müller.

On the basis of the higher calculated overall probability that the userwould like to obtain a route plan to Mr/Mrs Müller, the data record ofMr/Mrs Müller is first of all used as the destination address in stepS34, in which the data records are displayed organized on the basis oftheir overall probability. Once the user has identified in step S16′that the displayed data record is that desired for Mr/Mrs Müller, thisis confirmed by a voice command or via a confirmation key. On the basisof the confirmation, the data record can be transferred directly to theapplication, that is to say the navigation system, as the destinationfor route planning (step S35). However, as is shown in FIG. 3, thesystem can once again be asked in advance, in step S36, whether the datarecord should be processed. If this is the case, then the data record isprocessed in step S37. Otherwise, the method returns to step S35. Aftercompletion of the processing, it is then possible to carry out anadditional check in step S38 to determine whether the processed datarecord should be sent to the navigation system or should merely bestored.

However, if the data record associated with Mr/Mrs Möller does notinclude the desired destination address, then the method jumps in stepS16′ to step S39, in which a check is carried out to determine whetherthere are any other data records. If this is the case in the presentexample here, then the data record for Mr/Mrs Möller is displayed instep S34. If this data record is not the desired one either, then acheck is once again carried out in step S39 to determine whether thereare any other data records. If this is not the case, then a check iscarried out in step S40 to determine whether there are still any termswhich have been identified and for which it has not been possible tofind any data records. If this is the case, as in the example, that termis displayed in step S41. Once, in step S42, the user has confirmed thedisplayed term as that which he desired, the system asks, in step S43,whether a new data record should be used. If this is the case, then themethod continues to step S37, otherwise, the input method is ended.

If, in step S42, the user rejects the displayed term as being incorrect,then the method returns to step S40 until there are no more identifiedterms. In this case, corresponding to step S20, a note is then issuedwhich indicates that the term has not been identified, in order that theinput method can then be ended.

However, after step S20 and after step S43, it is also possible toreturn to the voice input in step S13′, and to request the user to makeanother input.

When a data record is selected, in order to reduce a list of datarecords which has been found after inputting a term, it is also possiblein accordance with the method explained with reference to FIG. 3 toinput a further term, and to look for this term only in the list whichhas already been obtained. If, for example, the name Müller has beencorrectly identified and a number of data records have been associatedwith the name Müller, then the desired one of these data records can bedetermined by an additional input, as explained above.

With the method according to the invention, it is also possible to makethe selection of data records from a database on the basis of one ormore terms which have been input, and to complete an input form or aninput dialogue like a form only when the user inputs an appropriaterequest signal acoustically, visually or by touch via the keypad 13 orthe turn control 14. This allows the user to input two or more termsfrom the start, in order to simplify the search for the desired datarecord and the automatic completion of the input.

Instead of the described pure voice input, it is also possible to make acombined voice and keypad input. In this case, the confidence value 1for key input can be reduced by the system if it is known on the basisof the input-specific error statistics, which are stored in the memoryarea 26, that the input has a certain amount of uncertainty associatedwith it on the basis that typing errors and/or numerical inversions bythe user have frequently be identified. In this case, as has alreadybeen explained above, it is also possible to correct inversions ofnumbers or letters, and other typing errors, if required.

Using the video camera 11 and the downstream image identification 12, itis possible to input individual commands as well as individual lettersby using gestures or the like. For example, an open hand could bedefined as a command to terminate an operation. Quantitative values canalso be recorded by the start and end of a hand movement, with thevalues determined in each case likewise being associated with aconfidence value.

The method according to the invention and described with reference toFIG. 3 thus makes it possible to carry out even complex dialoguesquickly and reliably since the dialogues and dialogue forms areautomatically completed on the basis of already stored data records,which are selected on the basis of the specified terms, so that the userneed not continually input data once again after they have already beeninput.

1. A method for inputting data into a system comprising the steps of: inresponse to a voice input by a user, identifying one or more terms,which are as appropriate as possible for the voice input based on aconfidence value; determining from stored data records, data recordsmatching the identified terms as well as probability values assigned tothe matching data records, wherein each of said probability values iscalculated for each stored data record as a ratio of the number of timesthe matching data record has been used during a certain period of timein the immediate recent past to the total number of times all the storeddata records have been used during the certain period so as to describethe relative probability of the matching data record being used again;calculating an overall probability from said confidence value of theidentified term and the probability value of the matching data record;processing said identified terms according to said overall probability;and wherein the voice input is first of all subjected to speakeridentification, and the subsequent voice recognition process is carriedout, taking into account the result of the speaker identification. 2.Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the confidence valueis a value from an interval between a number, preferably 1,corresponding to reliable identification, and that for an input whichcannot be identified, corresponding to 0, including these values. 3.Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the identified termsare announced and/or displayed to a user as a system response, startingwith the term identified as being the most reliable, on the basis of theoverall probability.
 4. Method according to claim 1, characterized inthat, for each identified term, the data records which are appropriatefor the identified terms are looked for in a list of stored datarecords.
 5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that, whendata are being input, the input is completed by a data recordappropriate for the identified term, using a form-based dialoguestructure.
 6. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that thedata input is completed in response to a request signal.
 7. Methodaccording to claim 5, characterized in that the number of data recordsfound can be reduced by inputting one or more further terms.
 8. Methodaccording to claim 1, characterized in that an announcement/displaysequence of the data records is defined as a function of their overallprobability.
 9. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, anincorrectly alphanumerically input term, which has already frequentlybeen input incorrectly in a manner specific to a particular user, isassigned a lower confidence value as a function of input-specific errorstatistics.
 10. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that theinput is an image input.
 11. A method for inputting data into a systemcomprising the steps of: in response to an input by a user, made via analphanumeric input device, the input being assigned a confidence valuefor reliable identification, and identifying one or more terms, theterms being as appropriate as possible for the input based on theconfidence value; determining from stored data records, data recordsmatching the identified terms as well as probability values assignedthereto, wherein each of said probability values is calculated for eachstored data record as a ratio of the number of times the matching datarecord has been used during a certain period of time in the immediaterecent past to the total number of times all the stored data recordshave been used during the certain period so as to describe the relativeprobability of the matching data record being used again; calculating anoverall probability from said confidence value of the identified termand the probability value of the matching data record; processing saididentified terms according to said overall probability; and wherein anincorrect, alphanumerically input term, which has already frequentlybeen input incorrectly in a manner specific to a particular user, isautomatically corrected, with the corrected term being assigned aconfidence value which is lower than the confidence value for reliableidentification.